On Your Side
by SereneCalamity
Summary: On days like this, he just needed his family. Clace.


_This story, and title, was inspired by_ On Your Side _by the Veronicas. Absolutely love that song!_

 _Disclaimer: I do not own the characters, or the title._

"You doing okay?" Alec Lightwood muttered as he looked across at his partner, Jace Herondale, who was shrugging out of his jacket, which was covered with soot and blood. Jace grunted under his breath as he looked at his jacket, which now had black holes burnt into one of the arms and the hem was singed. Alec glanced at him out of the corner of his eye as Jace let out a growl and tossed the jacket toward the pin in the corner of the locker room. "Hey...It could have gone a lot worse," Alec reasoned quietly.

"It could have gone a lot better too!" Jace snapped in annoyance, glaring over at Alec. Alec knew that there was no reasoning with him when he was in this mood, and after the day that they had had today, Jace had every reason to be angry and upset. So he just reached over and slapped his hand down on Jace's shoulder and gave it a squeeze.

"You want to come over for dinner? Magnus is working late so it would just be us. We can order pizza and some beer..."

"You haven't seen the time?" Jace raised an eyebrow as he glanced down at his watch. "It's already late. Mags will be home by now." Alec looked down at his phone in surprise, seeing that it was almost eleven o'clock already.

"The offer still stands," Alec continued. "If you want to come over for a bit before going home, you know you're always welcome." Jace nodded at him and gave him a tight smile before pulling his leather jacket out of his locker and tugging it on. He had already changed out of his pants, which had been stained with blood, but his short sleeved shirt wasn't quite as bad, only a little darkened in some spots from the soot, so he was clearly just going to wear that one home and change then.

"I just want to go home," Jace responded. "I need to get out of here—I'll see you tomorrow, yeah?" Alec nodded and Jace slammed his locker shut, striding out of the locker room. The station was still swarming with officers, and not just the night crew either. Sebastian Verlac and Jordan Kyle, who were in their squad, were still working their way through all their paperwork and their sergeant, Luke Garroway, was in his office, hunched over his desk with his lamp turned on. Jace stopped by the office, tapping his knuckles on the door. "I'm heading out now," he said shortly when Luke looked up.

"Yup," Luke nodded. "Might be a good idea to take the back door out, reporters are still swarming."

"Fucking assholes," Jace swore under his breath, feeling the anger from the day rising up again.

"You alright?" Luke asked with a knowing expression.

"Yeah, just—just need to get home," Jace muttered, looking down at the keys in his hand, turning them over. Luke nodded.

"We'll see you in the morning," Luke responded before looking back down at the paperwork that was scattered over his desk, picking his pen up. Jace took in a deep breath as he turned around and walked out of the squad room, jogging down the steps to the ground floor and then hesitating in the main lobby as he saw the swarm of reporters still outside the main entrance of the police station. He thought about going out the front door, because that was the quickest way to his car, but then decided against it, choosing to go out the back door.

The whole thing had just turned to shit.

They had been after a child kidnapping ring for the past four months, and today they had finally managed to track down the perpetrators and find their main base. He had gotten a call at three in the morning, and had dragged himself out of bed and down to the station, where everyone was getting in tactical gear and Luke and the SWAT leader, Hodge Starkweather, were shouting out the plan of attack.

It had been a straight forward flood into the abandoned warehouse, announcing their presence as they had swarmed into the area with their guns held high. There were twelve children that they needed to get out, and Alec and Jace were covering the right side of the building with a couple of members of SWAT, careful not to shoot when they saw shadows moving, knowing that it could be any of the kids.

Unfortunately, that was when everything turned into a mess. It had been almost twelve in the afternoon when they had invaded the warehouse, and just eight minutes after getting inside, the building had caught on fire. The kidnappers had obviously thought this through, their plan of escape, because the fire was set in a ring around the building, with the intention of trapping all of the officers inside. Things had been thrown forward, a complete mess of shouting and screaming as officers ran to get out of the building and wait for the fire department to arrive.

They had only been a few minutes out, finishing with a crash on the main highway which was only a few blocks over, and as soon as they had had gotten the flames under control, Jace and his squad had run right back in.

The twelve children were still inside.

Two of them were already dead by the time Luke had shouted through their comm unit that he had found them.

Four of them were in hospital in critical condition due to smoke inhalation.

The remaining six had managed to shelter themselves under some loose floorboards, and they had to stay in the hospital for a few days to be checked over from, but they were going to be okay.

 _But two children were dead._

Jace wasn't going to forget that little girl that he had carried out, the side of her body burned, the blood dripping down her legs and soaking into his pants. Rage had filled his body as he stared down at the poor girl, thinking back to the photos in their squad room that her parents had given her when the girl had first gone missing. She had looked so happy, so young, with a pink bunny hugged tightly in her arms.

Jace tightened his grip around his keys so much that the metal bit into his rough palm, threatening to split the skin.

Reporters with their cameras and questions had surrounded the place, asking what had gone wrong, wanting to know if they had caught the men responsible, who was alive, who was dead—vultures, the lot of them. Jace had been close to lashing out and smashing one of the reporters cameras when they had shoved it in his face for the second time when he had caught a glimpse of someone watching them.

Someone he recognized from surveillance photos.

He had shouted out to Luke and Jordan, who had been standing near them, and they had given chase. They had caught the man after three blocks and dragged him down to the police precinct. Jace wasn't too proud of what happened in the interrogation room when the cameras were shut off, but two children were dead, and the rest of the men who were involved in the kidnapping needed to be found. Sometimes they needed to do things that they weren't so proud of to get to the information they needed.

Jace swallowed hard when he finally got to his car and got inside. There was still some blood on the creases of his knuckles, and the smell of smoke was stuck in his nostrils, and he knew that when he got home he was going to need to spend half an hour in the shower to get rid of the stench and the redness. A radio station was playing, running through the late night news, and within minutes the conversation turned to a report of the fire and the kidnapping ring and the subsequent police chase and that currently there has been no official comment from the police department. He jabbed his finger forward to turn the radio off, his shoulders hunching forward as anger washed over him again.

He pulled into his driveway and turned off the engine of his Holden, taking in a few breaths as he sat in the darkness of his car. The porch light was on, but didn't quite reach his car, and after a minute of catching his breath, Jace got out of his car, locking the door behind him and walking toward the house. The door was locked, and when he let himself in, he kicked off his shoes, letting them join the pile against the hallway door. The lower ground of the house was dark, the lounge, kitchen and hallway all with their lights off for the night. He considered going to the hall, to the rooms that came off, but he decided against it, walking slowly up the steps, careful to step around the centre of the stairs which had a habit of squeaking. There was a dim light coming from the last room, and Jace let out a sigh of relief as he walked down to his bedroom.

His wife, still awake but looking as though she was close to sleep.

And his two children, in bed with her, rather than downstairs in their bedrooms.

"They saw you on TV," Clarissa Herondale murmured so as not to wake the two sleeping children tucked into bed next to her. "You were on the news, and they freaked out. I was in the kitchen making dinner and I didn't realize that they were watching until Lydia started crying that her daddy had been hurt." Her voice was even, but there was worry in her eyes and the corners of her full lips were pinched.

"I'm sorry," Jace whispered as he stepped into the room. "I should have warned you that I was going to be on the news. The reporters were everywhere, they were fucking everywhere."

"Language," Clary said absentmindedly, even though both Lydia and Isaac Herondale were fast asleep. She looked at her two children, Isaac in the middle, one of his thumbs in his mouth, and Lydia on the other side of her brother, curved around him protectively with her mouth wide open, and snoring, just like her mother did. Clary slid out of bed, padding across the carpet to where Jace was standing, and putting her hands on his shoulders. "Are you okay?" She asked quietly, her green eyes intense. "I turned the TV off as soon as I realized what thy were watching, but..." she took in a shaky breath and Jace felt the anger seep out of his bones, guilt replacing it. "But I re-watched it once I got them in the bath. That fire looked like it was close...And that child you were holding."

"I'm fine," Jace told her, leaning down so that their foreheads were pressed together, letting his eyes close.

"No you're not," Clary whispered knowingly.

"No, I'm not," Jace agreed with a sigh. "But I'm better. Now." Her hands slipped from his shoulders to around his neck, her thumbs massaging the base lightly. "You know that coming home to you is always the best part about my day," he opened his eyes and his lips pulled up in the corner in a smile. Clary smiled back and reached up to kiss him on the mouth when there was movement behind them.

"And to me," came a sleepy, slurred voice, and they both turned with a smile to where Lydia was blinking her green eyes—so similar to Clary's—rubbing at them with her small fists. She was struggling to keep her eyes open, but she was stubborn—so similar to both her parents—and she pushed back the blanket in an attempt to roll out of bed.

"You should be asleep, monkey," Clary hummed out as she walked around to where Lydia was.

"And to me, right? Coming home to is the best part?" Lydia continued, sounding a little bit more awake now. Jace couldn't fight his smile as he followed Clary, coming over to sit on the bed next to Lydia, putting his hand lightly on her shoulder.

"You know it is, baby," Jace told her with a gentle smile, Clary looking sideways at the soft expression on his face, the expression that he reserved just for her and their children. "Although your mama is right, you should be asleep. It's way past your bedtime, and you've got school tomorrow morning."

"We wanted to make sure you were okay," Lydia protested, her eyes widening. "You were on TV, and you were in the fire!" Clary's smile disappeared and the worry lines from before replaced it, and Jace took in a deep breath as he reached out with the hand not touching Lydia to hold Clary's hand.

"You know that sometimes daddy's job can get a little bit scary," Jace murmured. "You remember why that is, though, right?"

"Because you help people," Lydia mumbled.

"But you know that I'm always going to come home to you, and mama, and Isaac." Lydia's lower lip was still drawn into her mouth, and she reached out with both hands, opening and closing them in a grabbing motions. Jace leaned forward, and Lydia wound her arms around his neck in an almost strangling hug. Jace breathed in the sweet scent of his daughter, smelling like her strawberry body wash and the hot chocolate that she always had before going to bed. It was comforting, like a salve over the aches of his day. He let her hold him for a little longer before pulling back and leaving kisses over her forehead and cheeks. "Okay, sweetheart," he told her. "You need to get to sleep now." Lydia looked like she wanted to argue but Clary gave her a gentle, reprimanding look.

"Remember what you promised mama?" She reminded her. "You would go to sleep without complaining if you could sleep in here?" Lydia sighed but nodded. "Okay, monkey, so time to go to sleep." Jace reached over Lydia to put his hand on Isaac's stomach, the eighteen month old still fast asleep, dressed in a little green and blue onesie. He kissed his sons cheek before getting off the bed, Clary pulling up the blankets over Lydia's body and stroking her fingers through hair.

"Where are you going?" Lydia asked as she snuggled back into the pillow, claiming the one on the left side of the bed and Jace knew he was going to spend the night with his head flat on the mattress because his daughter was an adorable pillow-hog.

"We'll be back soon," Clary promised. Lydia nodded, although her eyes were already closing. The only light in the room was coming from the dim lamp that was on Clary's side of the bed, and on their way out of the room, Clary turned it off. The pair stepped into the adjoining bathroom, shutting the door before turning on the light, and Jace reached into the shower to turn it on. He undressed slowly, Clary leaning against the door, wearing a pair of sleeping shorts and one of his shirts that almost swallowed up her petite frame. Her hair was in a loose braid that hung forward over one shoulder, and she looked tired, yet she was still the most beautiful woman he had ever seen.

"I love you," Jace whispered as he stepped forward, only left in his briefs.

"And I love you," Clary told him as he circled his arms around her body, pulling her to his muscular one. She traced her fingers up his back, over the scars that he had collected in his time on the force, including a jagged scar left from a bullet behind his shoulder that had given them all a scare just a few years ago. "Out there, Alec and the rest of your boys, they've got your back," Clary's lips moved against his chest. "But when you're here, it's us—we're the ones on your side."

"I know," Jace had his head buried in her neck, his mouth pressed to the soft skin at the curve of her shoulder. The anger and the tension he had been feeling all day, it had only been relieved once he had seen his family, and once he had been held by Clary. Her soothing scent and her comforting touch were exactly what he needed to come home to at the end of the day, especially a day that had gone as badly as today.

"I'm gonna go to bed," Clary said after a few moments of holding each other in silence. Jace nodded as he pulled back, cupping her face in his hands. She let her eyes closed as his thumbs brushed over her cheek bones. The room was filling with steam and Jace could see that it was beginning to cling to her—well, _his_ shirt—that she was wearing.

"I won't be long," Jace promised as he stepped back to pull off his briefs.

"Promise?" Clary quirked an eyebrow.

"Promise," Jace responded before stepping into the shower. He scrubbed his hands and his arms roughly, and when he got out of the shower, he tugged on a pair of sweatpants that Clary had left in the vanity unit for him. He opened the bathroom door and before he turned off the light, he took a moment to appreciate his family.

They were all fast asleep; Lydia once again snoring, her arms stretched out because his girl most definitely had a gift for taking up as much room as she possibly could, Isaac was still contentedly sucking on his thumb, and Clary was on her side of the bed, one of her arms above his head and the other resting across Isaac's legs. There was a tiny space on the side of the bed where Lydia was sleeping which was reserved for Jace, and he knew it was going to be an uncomfortable nights sleep ahead.

But it didn't matter.

This was his family, his life, and this was exactly where he needed to be.

 _Ups to the people who guess where the kids name come from, although it's not that hard ;) Haha._

 _Leave a review, let me know what you think._


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